Tokyo Olympics 2020: Sharath Kamal says new coach Dejan Papic should not put new system in place one year before Games

New Delhi: India’s seniormost paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal is hoping that the new national coach Dejan Papic does not try to reinvent the wheel with just one year left for the Tokyo Olympics. On Tuesday, the Canadian Papic accepted the one-year contract offered by the Sports Authority of India (SAI) to coach the Indian team. Sharath, who is currently the world number 32, said the new coach will have to be content with just tweaking things to enhance the performance of the players. [caption id=“attachment_5060631” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Sharath Kamal. Reuters[/caption] “We are growing and we have found a system. The new coach will have to make changes within the existing system. Because if he tries to put in place a new system this close to the Olympics, things might go haywire,” said Sharath, who will play for the Chennai Lions in the new season of Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT). The long-serving coach Massimo Costantini had quit after the Asian Games last year citing personal reasons. Under him, India had made rapid strides with historic performances at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and Jakarta Asian Games, where the country ended a 60-year-wait for a table tennis medal. “It is very difficult to coach India because it is such a huge country. It will take a while for the coach to understand the system and the players. Our main focus will be the Olympics,” Sharath said. The 37-year-old also asserted that both the paddlers and Papic will have to meet halfway to make their association successful. “The coach and paddlers need to come together. We have been working with or without a national coach. I have done it for 15 years, Sathiyan has been doing it, Manav (Thakkar) is also learning because it’s an individual sport,” said Sharath, who will be competing in his fourth Olympics. “The coach can help us but we need to work on ourselves individually. So I think we need to come to terms with the coach and he also has to come along with us instead of trying to create a new system. He can do that after the Olympics. He needs to follow the existing system,” Sharath added. Talking about the Olympics, Sharath said that Indian table tennis is progressing in the right direction with a strong team in place. “We have improved tremendously since the last Olympic games. In 2016, in the men’s team event, we finished 25th and now are world number 11. We also got our first medal in 60 years at the Asian Games.” “We are in the right direction and are doing quite well, it’s because of the system created by the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI), UTT and SAI that we have been able to build a strong team and not individual excelling at singles events,” he added.